Reading the blog posts of students who did and did not attend the conference has been amazing -- we are seeing that although 4 students and 2 teachers went to Qatar - that the majority of our students have now changed their views on the Middle East! It was stunning when I came back and asked the students to tell me what they learned from the conference

Friday, January 30, 2009

This is so exciting. Julie and I have been working on this for over a month as the replacement for the 2008 Horizon Project. Here's the announcement. Lots of opportunities for educators to participate. Check our wiki for up to date information and how YOU can join in with your classroom or as an educator volunteer.Read write projects with book authors - what needs to happen with all of our books.

In the same genre students in this project will interact on a Ning jointly created with Don Tapscott. Don will post weekly questions to the Discussion forum and leave video messages to the students. It will be a read/write project. He will also interact LIVE via a webinar. Don has a vision for improved educational outcomes and is reaching out to interact directly with students through his challenge and this project.

We will be studying this year's Horizon Report (released January 2009) but adding to it the intro and Chapter 5 from Don's book, Grown Up Digital: (Rethinking Education) to the reading assignments for students. Students will be divided into groups to analyze some of the key trends in reworking education to create collaborative report written with other students from around the world. Each team will have a project manager and assistant project manager to help facilitate the work on the team. These "managers" will be students with teachers working as facilitators.

Each student will cast their vision for the future of education with a video to be uploaded on our project ning. All videos will be automatically entered into Don Tapscott's Net Generation Education Challenge competition and could win scholarship money for future educational pursuits.

You do not HAVE to be a part of the project with Julie and I to join the Ning and participate in Don's challenge competition - so go ahead and do that. But if you are ready to have your students collaborate globally and follow the best practices as used in the award winning Flat Classroom, Horizon, and Digiteen projects fill out this form before February 9th and applynow!.

Our tentative timeline:

2/1- 2/9 - Application process for classrooms

2/1 - 3 pm EST - Information Meeting

2/2 - 2/7 - Selection Process (classes will be notified as soon as they are selected)

2/6 - Ning, wiki, and google group are "live" by this date

2/10 - Final announcements of Classrooms

2/11 - Greeting from Don posted to the Ning via video - this may be his "author keynote" or he may choose to have a challenge each week and have it be small pieces.

Weekly- discussions posted to the forum (can we pick a day and a time for this to happen?) Will Don have a blog on the site as well?

3/3 - 3/31 - Movie Artifact phase of project (note that there will be some overlap between Research and Movie Artifact)

*Storyboarding 3/3 - 3/8

*Outsourced video requests posted to the Ning by 3/10 (we would like students to be able to do this with a blog post on the Ning and tag it outsourced - we can then add a menu item for everything tagged outsource_request and students can sign up with a reply and post a link in the comments, this is a change from the last project but will work better)

3/31 - Final Deadline for All Movies to be posted

4/1 - 4/8 - Post project reflections, student summits

Net Generation Education Challenge

Written by Kasi Bruno
A crisis is emerging in our schools and universities.

Traditional, one-way broadcast models of education are out-dated. Schools have not evolved as quickly as other institutions, and students are becoming disengaged as a result. Why are connected students at home suddenly disconnected at school?

How can we reinvent education for relevance and effectiveness for the 21st century?

Inspired by the work of Don Tapscott and Grown Up Digital, the Net Gen Education Challenge offers everyone an outlet through which to express their ideas and opinions about their ideal model of education. The challenge community will connect engaged participants all around the world, bringing educators, students, parents and professionals together in a global dialogue on learning. In partnership with the CBC, Flat Classroom Project, the Discovery Channel's Educator Network and Classroom 2.0, Don Tapscott invites you to share your ideas and help make education engaging, inspiring and relevant.

Discovery Educator Network/Net Generation Book Club

by Steve Dembo

In conjunction with the Net Generation Education (NGE) project, the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) will be hosting a weekly book club for Tapscott's work, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. While the NGE project will be focusing just on the Intro and Chapter 5, we will gather together weekly to discuss the ideas within the book and their implications for education. Best of all, the author himself, Don Tapscott, will sit in on the final week to share his thoughts in a candid conversation with everyone who participates in the book club.

There will be both live and web based discussion options for participants. The live component will take place Monday evenings, 2/9 through 3/23 at 7pm EST. We will be looking for people to lead the weekly discussions as well. If you would be interested in volunteering to lead the discussion for one of the weekly meetings, please mark it on the registration form.

If you are a DEN member and would like to be a part of the book club, please register here. If you are not currently a DEN member and would like to learn more, please contact me !

Don's publisher has been gracious enough to offer the book for only $18.45, a generous discount, to everybody who participates in the Book Club.

There are three ways to order:
Order directly from website http://www.800CEORead.com
Email Aaron at and let him know you are participating in the DEN / Net Gen Book Club Aaron@800ceoread.com
Call Aaron at 1.414.274.6406, ext. 204 and do the same.

Net Generation Education Webinars

by Steve Dembo
To support teachers and students who are participating in the Net Generation Education Project, the Discovery Educator Network will be hosting four webinars with two of the country's foremost experts on digital storytelling; Hall Davidson and Joe Brennan. These webinars will be intended for teachers to attend WITH their students so that they may learn ways to create digital stories from the very best. To learn more about Hall Davidson and Joe Brennan, visit the Discovery Education Speakers Bureau.

Reading the blog posts of students who did and did not attend the conference has been amazing -- we are seeing that although 4 students and 2 teachers went to Qatar - that the majority of our students have now changed their views on the Middle East! It was stunning when I came back and asked the students to tell me what they learned from the conference.

I sat down to talk to my 10th grade and asked:

"What did you learn from the conference?"

The first answer from a student who DID NOT ATTEND:

"I learned to NOT stereotype people from the Middle East, they are people just like us and sometimes the media isn't telling us the truth."

"While I was participating in the Flat Classroom Conference virtually, I began to realize that this project has more meaning than just a classroom assignment, or busy work for the students. Several people have taught me that there is hope in this world....

Before, i was slightly frightened thinking about being around the people with the turbans on their heads, thinking they were a threat to North America and our society. But i now realize they are people just like us, and they want to make the world a better place as well."

"Even though I didn't go to the conference, I still learned a lot. Now that I've seen the videos and the pictures from the trip I wish I had gone. It would have been a great experience that I probably would never have forgotten. I realized that many of the cultures aren't all that different from ours.

My views on the Middle East have changed a little because the people that did go said that everybody was extremely nice and Qatar was amazing! Everybody seemed to have a lot of fun. I thought it was really interesting how the students had to get together in groups and film videos that raised awareness to poverty and racism."

"One of the things that I like was the Eracism video. Our culture has changed a lot, but there are still some people who are racist in the U.S. It's also still a problem everywhere else to. Hopefully someday racism won't be a problem anymore."

And then, Kaycie's (a virtual attendee) post brings tears to my eyes. I'm including the whole post as it is a powerful testament to what CAN happen if those of us working with projects and link ups take it to the next step AND add a face to face component to our collaborations:

"The Flat Classroom Conference was overall a great experience, even for those who participated virtually. Videos were taken of the conferences so all of us got to watch and see what was going on. The video where Jeff does his presentation on "YOU" I thought was very good and educational. It had a really good point behind it. We don't realize how much WE do and the way it affects our society. From the websites we get on to the amount of text messages we send, it all makes a difference. The people that got to go to the conference also had some really great videos and presentations. Each had to think of a topic and something they could do that would help make change. They also videoed some of their experiences they had while they were there. I think this was good because it gave the people back home a visual so we could see what the Middle East is like and their culture.

I think this project definitely changed my view of the Middle East. Not all people are like us, but that doesn't mean that they are bad either. There's nothing wrong with learning people's culture and seeing the way they do things. It can be very helpful in the society that we live in. When people see the news broadcasts they believe whatever the people tell them. They judge before they actually see who people are and what is going on. I think that this view needs to change and people if people are going to see the cons, they also need to take time to look at the pros as well."

This is SO NOT about technology and so much about PEOPLE.

It is not about the technology itself but what the technology lets us do.

If we are to solve today's global problems, it will take people in disparate places working together with people around the world. Meeting face to face cements the ties that have emerged through our computers to give us the trust and relationship that it takes to attain the cooperation we need to improve our world.

Don't think that we're somehow the only one's doing this sort of thing. It is happening everywhere there are excellent educators committed to an excellent 21st century education. These educators are connecting their students, and yes, eventually taking some of them to meet face to face.

Although I haven't posted my own take aways from the conference -- I have more hope now that I've returned than ever before because I am seeing the WHOLE SCHOOL change their views on all of this technology and working with other places. There is an excitement and an energy and an understanding for what we're doing in this classroom and around the world that has never happened.

It is about people.

Connecting people.

Understanding people.

Uniting people.

Giving back our hope that we can build the bridges today that the students of tomorrow will walk across.

Keep the faith - teachers you have the most noble calling on earth. And if you're using your classroom to collaborate with others around the corner, around the country, around the world - you've escalated yourself to the top echelon of nobility and excellence as a teacher whose legacy will extend far beyond today. This is a grassroots effort of which we are part.

Registration opens tomorrow for the Flat Classroom Workshop that Tom Daccord and I will be doing on June 25-26 in Boston. This will be just before heading over to NECC - Saturday workshop there on using cell phones in the classroom AND Edubloggercon (which always rocks.) Hope to meet some new friends and have some exciting learning this summer.

Blue zones education program - this is the education model - this is a great opportunity for younger students and is a "real" live experience that makes a big difference. Fascinating for health teachers and science teachers as well.

Here is some information on the blue zones project that some of you may be interested in participating - I received this over email today:

"2009 Blue Zones Quest Fact Sheet

Program Name Blue Zones Quest

Description Dan Buettner leads the third of four annual expeditions to the world's longevity hotspots, called Blue Zones. Under the direction of an online student audience, the team unlocks the secrets of longevity and gives students a cross-cultural recipe of the world's best health and lifestyle practices.

Location Northern Aegean Sea. The island name will be announced in January, 2009.

Date April 20-May 1, 2009

Targeted Audience Students of all ages

Features Blue Zones Challenge, which teams students, parents and educators in a month-long program of healthy habits.

This teacher, Kelly, is interested in starting a project focusing on India in mid-/February 2009. She's located in London. Anyone interested? She has 8th grade students. If so, please contact her on this page.

"i have made friends from all over this beautiful world that we live on. From Australia to Oman to Ethiopia to this beautiful country of Qatar. And one thing i have to say is that no one, and i mean no one should ever judge someone on their stereotypes. Why is it that i get along with the people from this conference? WHy is it that i can make people laugh over here? It is because we are all humans. Yes i know that there are cultural differences but that doesnt mean that we are completely different. We share so many characteristics. I am extremely happy that i have made friends from all around the world and i hope to see them again sometime in the future."

Truly, dune bashing will go down in my personal record book as one of the greatest travel experiences of my life. It was unbelievable. This is the photo album including a lot of photos taken by the participants and a video of dune bashing, the students talking about it and some of my colleagues and I relaxing at the desert barbeque. It is great to start off with an event like this because you get to relax and have a great time! We rode camels too! A lot like a horse except when you get on, you'd better hang on because when the camel gets up, you are at about a 70 degree angle looking at the ground! Amazing!

The staff at Qatar Academy has impressed everyone on the trip! It was so much fun and they set it up with the longest running tour company in Qatar.

I hope that we can work it out to take more students and staff next year! To do that, we'll have to start working on it now!

OK, gotta run now, it is 10:20 pm here and there is still quite a bit more work on my list to do. A big shout out to my sister Sarah who designed our Flat Classroom Logo about 2 years a go (it brings tears to my eyes to see it on our banners) and who designed the DigiDollars we'll be using at the conference.

Getting ready for a project based learning conference - it will be exciting. Julie Lindsay is a champ!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

We're off to Qatar - been traveling since 5:45 am this morning - board a plane tonight in DC for Qatar and we'll get there tomorrow.

My students and I have a blog (World Wide Wildcats - which they named at Chilis today over lunch) to let the school travel vicariously with us. Our curriculum director, Betty has elementary students studying time zones and other things and will be communicating with them via email (and hopefully our blog.)

We're excited. We'll also be on the Conference Ning as well, hope you'll join us!

Join in our virtual scavenger hunt - this is a quick simple way in 3 days that you can meet students from other cultures and "flatten" your classroom by participating in the flat classroom conference.

Start the conversations that need to happen. We're kicking this off now, although once it starts, it can really continue for some time. Maybe some of you will bring your students in to participate virtually. If you do this, please give a shout out by replying to the discussion.

Join in if you wish! Just another way to flatten your classroom and there are a growing many!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Here are all of the ways that you can watch the Obama inauguration. Most interesting to me: nickelodeon is going to cover it. Current and twitter are teaming up and the user tweets will be shown in current's inauguration day coverage. National Public Radio and CNN and Facebook all are offering coverage. Also, Wee World, and avatar network will have an online inauguration party and I've heard of some in SL as well. At 9;30 am EST - take time to show your students what is important. Tune in and speak up.

It will do us little good to wire the world if we short-circuit our souls.
There is not delete button for racism, poverty or sectarian violence.
No keystroke can ever clear the air, save a river, preserve a forest.
This transformational new technology must be an extension of our hearts as well as of our minds.
The old rules still apply..."

Tom Brokaw, American Journalist"

There it is... the summary of the purpose of this week's conference on the side of a steaming hot cup 'o joe.

Diigo is going to work out a way to pull in your notebook into Google Lists. Time and again, Maggie Tsai and this company work to bring really cool things for educators. They are a hard working crew and I LOVE their service. Something about working with people who listen to educators.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Today, I've been working with my students in Twitter - (set up a separate account for that and had them make updates private) - this is so they can follow the conference virtually. The ninth grade assignments are on the class wiki.

The students have been building on their Digiteen Island in Reaction Grid - after four days the progress is amazing. It is not quite as hard I thought it would be. This is made possible by Trevor Meister, my student's new hero. While many made fun the kids - he said, I'll help them do this. Thank you for supporting the Dream Team - you showed them that even if you don't get what you want, sometimes you get something 1000 times BETTER!!!!! They are thrilled and although they still miss Lively, many of them are beginning to think that this platform has much more potential. You can see the assignment from Day 2 and it is fascinating ot learn how to work in there - the student teams all have meeting places in the island as they are meeting face to face so they can work together. It is fascinating.

This week, we had Edutopia on campus filming one of my students, Virginia who was selected as one of their 10 digital youth. Their executive producer was SUPER SHARP and it was a joy to hear the types of things he's covering in education.

And, Julie and I are working like two workaholics on the upcoming Flat Classroom conference. I hope you'll participate virtually! Although this is the same weekend as Educon, with the time difference - we'll be wrapping up most days around 6 pm, which is around 8 am Eastern Time. This means that between educon and the Flat Classroom Conference - you can have PD just about all day and night long!

My typing students are BEGGING to get on the Ning - but no, they don't until they learn the keys. I'm not going to start them when I can't be there the first week to monitor like a hawk anyway. When they make mistakes it is usually in the week and I've gotta be there, even though the Ning is private.

My computer graphic design students have learned the four principles of graphic design and are redesigning ads from our local paper. I have a lead on bringing the creative director from the paper in to critique the ads and perhaps may consider running the ads in the paper. Not sure if it will happen - but what a great win-win for the students and for them - if they get a better ad and the students get a real add in their portfolio. That is win-win.

OK, going to go watch TV with my family. Have an amazing weekend on the cusp of history.

"I've started a new community at http://www.FutureofEducation.com to providing an opportunity for those who care about education to share their voices and ideas on charting the course of education in a networked world. It's a place for thoughtful discussion on an incredibly important topic. The site will launch officially at the end of the month with the start of a weekly interview series, but I'm inviting some participation now because of an email Carol Broos (http://www.classroom20.com/profile/beatechie) sent out.

Carol is one of twelve teachers who have been invited to participate in a round table discussion concerning the direction of education the new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Jan 21. She was sent the following questions, and is asking for feedback and ideas. You can respond either at the new http://www.FutureofEducation.com site or her wiki at http://education20.pbwiki.com/FrontPage. Here are the questions:

1. What is the one most important education issue you wish Secretary Duncan to focus on during his tenure and why?2. How shall the tenets of the No Child Left Behind act be altered or invigorated? What are its positives? How can its negatives be improved?3. How should the new administration respond to the nation’s need for better prepared and more qualified teachers?4.What should the new administration do to increase student engagement in mathematics, the sciences and the arts?5. How should funding equity issues be addressed?

There is also a discussion topic on what questions were not asked that might have been."

Middle-school students across the United States are invited to submittheir solutions to environmental problems in their communities. Teams of two to three students from sixth through eighth grade working with a teacher will identify an environmental issue in their community, research the issue usingscientific investigation, and create a replicable green solution usingWeb-based curriculum tools.

This is a new website that lets you create cool free music online. For the readers of this blog, they have agreed to give out a free 3 month trial - when you sign up use the promo code COOLCAT and enjoy.

Please, to thank this company for letting us try out this service, please leave a message on this post about your thoughts OR blog about the site. I think it is great that they are reaching out to educators.

I will be spending time on this site myself after I return from Qatar on the 28th.

Still trying to get some students from a Title 1 school in Houston to the Flat Classroom Conference. We still need about $4000. it is sad that she's having to leave some of the 9 students behind. This would make such a difference in their lives. This is the article from the Houston Chronicle.

As Google shuts down unprofitable services, this thought that they'll shut down Google Reader - my trusty and favorite RSS reader just sends chills down my spine - I use it to generate my reader lists on my blogs.

I have to question that Google is not looking at the affect of what we call "penetration rate" into the services people use - if they push us to ZohoNotebook (which is what they've done) and force us to another reader, what else will we start using. Just thought Google was going in the right direction with things and now... well, they just seem to be pooping lots of parties.

This will be held in Washington DC. Of course, any "model" such as this will be controversial (because there are NO magic pills to solve one's ills) - but this would be interesting to listen to. January 28th 5-7 pm

This is why I don't share the photos of my children online in public places. After one pic of a child at school was favorited in this way, I took the pic down and am ridiculously vigilant about checking to see how many photos have been favorited and which ones to see if there is one that some sicko has looked at.

This is an article I'm going to share with my digiteen dream team! It is an important one to share!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

OK, as I bookmark this, I find that I have to correct the previous comment, it doesn't look like I can move items from sL inventory to open sim inventory - but then again, I AM SUCH A NEWBIE-- so if this can be done, I'd love to know how.

WE are exporting my inventory from Second Life into the OpenSim application and this tells us how to do that. WE are on Reaction Grid and learning a lot. We're teaching each other and appreciate Trevor Meister making an island on the green

I laugh at this viral video every time I see it. This is one of the most viral rock bands to emerge from youtube. Great video with them dancing on treadmills. This is actually a redo of their original, I belive - there are more treadmills.

I had to smile when I saw this high school take off on the popular OK go band.

First, view a bit of the OK Go band's dancing on treadmills video:

Then, take a look at these students from Granbury High School.

I just find it so interesting that youtube is everywhere. I keep trying to wonder what people are trying to protect children from. Yes, there are some things on youtube that aren't great, and I also wonder why there is no ratings system. Youtube is about to carry television programs that will be rated, and yet the other content isn't - I think they will have difficulty justifying it. Once youtube is rated, it will make it much easier for us on the filtration end.

How to take them there NOW!

For now, if you want to take that great youtube video to school with you - you have two choices:
1) Rip it and send it to your email using Zamzar (http://www.zamzar.com)
2) Rip it using something like Download Helper
3) Real Player allows you to download and put videos into realplayer on your computer.

I'd say #1 and 3 are my favorites, but then again, I have access to youtube. If I find a URL that is particularly offensive, I just block that specific URL in the firewall.

Check into Your School's policies
Most schools I know do allow their teachers to bring in videos, however, I have a friend at a local school that has to have permission from the curriculum director for every video used in her classroom. She says there is such a backlog that you might as well not ask.

I say that if you cannot trust your teachers they should be removed and not be teaching.

Those are three options to bring it with you if you cannot access youtube at school. As always, the best teachers work at home anyway. Good luck and enjoy!

In this piece I just authored for Edutopia, I talk about Personal Learning Networks and how we use them in my classroom. It includes some great quotes from my students retrieved when I asked them to reflect upon personal learning networks as they use them in class.

"‘(iii) as part of its Internet safety policy is educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and response.’."

Every Classroom Matters (Recent Shows)

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